I suppose you could find a poll to support whichever candidate you endorse in this presidential election, short of Ralph Nader. We may end up having to actually vote, if you can imagine such a thing, to determine the next president.

Reuters gave me the following information as of 9:11 AM this morning:

President Bush is now in a statistical dead heat with Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry for the Nov. 2 election, in a tightening of the race after the first debate last week, a poll on Monday showed.

Then, by 11:49 AM, Reuters had this information:

President Bush's lead over Democratic nominee John Kerry narrowed to one point in a Zogby poll of likely voters released on Monday, compared with a three-point lead in the poll conducted two weeks ago.

Oh, and that crucial “Security Mom” vote? It ain’t so crucial, according to Richard Louv:

Conducted last week, a Washington Post/ABC News poll found that mothers are "no more likely than other voters to name the war on terrorism or Iraq as their top voting issue." According to the poll, "only about one in four married women with children – 24 percent – rated the war on terrorism as their major concern." This polling organization, it should be noted, was one of the same groups that originally promoted the security mom stereotype.

The Washington Dispatch examines the sample groups in two Newsweek polls, and finds reason for doubt:

In the earlier poll, Newsweek surveyed 391 Republicans, 270 Independents and only 300 Democrats.

This poll balanced it with a better sample, using 345 Republicans, 278 Independents, and 364 Democrats.

Put away your calculators, that’s nearly a 12% overall shift towards the Democrats and John Kerry. While that is reason enough for that much of a dramatic shift towards John Kerry, the real fun part of this poll is the fact that John Kerry (with an assist from Newsweek) has completely erased the “gender gap.”

And that brings us to the most important internal number in the newly released poll. According to this poll, John Kerry leads among women by a slim 4 points. That’s really not very good news for the challenger as he’ll need a double-digit lead among women voters if he expects to win on November 2nd.

But to build this 3-point lead John Kerry has picked up support among men and now leads President Bush among male voters. That’s right, the gender gap has been completely erased by Newsweek, and John Kerry is now leading among male registered voters by a 47%-45% margin. These numbers are difficult to believe, and this makes this entire poll highly suspect.

And the Boston Globe considers the enthusiasm of Bush backers, as opposed to the relative indifference of Kerry supporters:

Bush's conservative base is broadly enthusiastic about the president, while political liberals are noticeably cooler to Kerry. Among registered voters, nearly seven in 10 self-described conservative supporters of Bush said they're enthusiastic about the president. But four in 10 liberals, 43 percent, expressed similar levels of excitement about Kerry.